Sound best when turned up a bit.
Treble not as pronounced as my previous speakers, PMC 20/21
Mid-range its best bit, vocals, sax and other solo instruments sound lovely
Bass punchy and tight and go reasonably deep, can excite my room bass resonances at high volume, (not a good thing if your room isn’t big enough, like mine).
Seemingly cope with playing loud with ease. Pardon?
I’m pondering moving my 40s on and have been for a while. Why? They need quite a bit of volume to sound good, they’re not as detailed as I’d like, once they’re at enough volume to produce enough bass there isn’t much headroom left before they dominate the room so much that it becomes an uncomfortable listen so the usable effective volume range is actually quite narrow. Granted most of these issues are because of the room not the speakers, but it’s easier to buy a new pair of speakers than get a new living room.
That room looks lovely, with that beautiful tall window. The system doesn’t seem to be the same as in your profile, which mentions a Supernait 3, yet the photo shows an Atom. I wonder which is right.
To me, they are exceptional speakers, transparent and very revealing of what is going on upstream. They showed me a pollution problem on the ethernet, where the old ProAc D20Rs hid it for several years in the same network configuration. The Naca5 didn’t suit the 40’s here (bass was completely out of control), it was better with standard speaker wires (2x4mm2) and even better with the WH Phantom. I had to solve both issues (network and speaker wire) to get them sounding right. The D20R had a sugar glazed mid-range, less extension on top and the bass reproduction wasn’t so clean, fast and precise. I listen to a lot of different styles of music and the 40’s are much more versatile and good at reproducing each style, mood or intention with accuracy. Despite their relatively low price, the 40’s are demanding on the quality of the signal and the electronics, they will not hide a flaw but show it very clearly. Speakers that push the system to the top and the best. I sometimes dream of going active with ATC, as many others have done around here, but I’ll wait until I need bigger speakers for a bigger living room. Getting ATC’s has been one of my best upgrades, they are only a small percentage of the value of the system but I don’t feel them to be the limiting factor. I think I will remain a loyal customer to the brand.
It actually works pretty well! I was a bit surprised at the improvement over the Atom internal streamer, but I suppose I shouldn’t have been. It’s a better streamer.
Also light levels. I enjoy listening to the stereo in the evenings, much more than on a bright, sunny day.
Perhaps sight is our primary sense (during daylight) hours, but as ambient light levels fall, its’ primacy over hearing declines, and our appreciation of sounds grows?
Thanks for the replies, will get a good demo before I take the plunge, but am considering active SCM 40’s and an SCA 02 pre. Two reasons 1, to reduce box count and 2, am fed up with so much transformer hum. In my new house I have to sit a bit nearer to the electronics so it’s a bit distracting.